


And I Pray To Meet You

by orphan_account



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Superheroes, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “What happened?” He asked, pulling the other chair and sitting close to him.Jongho shook his head before he moved in to hug him, his mind and heart a mess. Seonghwa didn’t ask any more questions. He hugged him back and held him as he began crying once again.
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Choi San, Jung Wooyoung/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	And I Pray To Meet You

**Author's Note:**

> ,,,,,,,,,,,,,hi.
> 
> I have no excuses, I'm just not good with the whole updating thing. 
> 
> Anyway, this fic does already have the next chapter ready so i (probably) won't be leaving it hanging for too long!
> 
> (hopefully)

Jongho was very sure that his boyfriend was hiding something from him. He wasn’t quite sure about what it was, he didn’t even have a vague idea, but he knew that something was up. There was no way that half the excuses he gave him these days were true. He had known that the boy was not a very good liar ever since their third date, when he told him that he had to leave because he had an early class the next day, when in fact, both of them had their first class together. At 1 pm. It was the only class they shared. Jongho had not called him out on the lie that night because he figured that he might have a good reason. The options were:

a) he hated the date and wanted to leave, in which case Jongho would simply forget he existed  
b) he had to do something embarrassing  
c) he actually had an early class that Jongho did not know about. This option was on the list only so that the list had three points and not two because three was a rounder number than two. No, he was not weird. His mum (okay, Seonghwa) told him that he was just special (fine, so maybe he said ‘quirky’. Whatever)

He knew for a fact that San did not have an early class because Wooyoung, Seonghwa’s boyfriend and San’s best friend, had confirmed it. At their shared class that day, San had turned up looking sheepish and had told him that he had left because he had to attend to something important but had not wanted to discuss it and potentially ruin the date. He had apologised with food. Needless to say, Jongho had been won over and he forgot about the whole thing in a few days. There was too much work to do and not enough time for him to mope or hold grudges.

But then, two months into the relationship, another incident took place. They had been watching some old movie at Jongho’s place when San had received a message which had brought such a fierce scowl to his face that he had been a little scared. The older boy had quickly made some excuses and had left, but not before promising to make up for it the next day. Jongho had been confused and worried but had been distracted by news of a new supervillain wreaking havoc in the city. The New World heroes had taken care of it but it had been ugly and there were speculations of one of the heroes sustaining major injuries.

Jongho wasn’t super invested in the whole hero thing but he respected the New World heroes since they seemed to genuinely try to help with a lot of issues. They had even come to their university a month ago and had guided the students on a lot of issues, not hesitating to talk about ‘taboo’ topics like racist hate crimes and crimes against the LGBTQA+ community.

San had been absent the next day and the day after. Seonghwa told him that one of San and Wooyoung’s closest friend, a guy named Yunho, had been in an accident and had to be hospitalized. Jongho figured that they were with him. San had messaged him on the third day explaining the situation. Jongho offered to bring lunch that day and San had agreed to it.

That day, he had met some of San’s other friends. Hongjoong was the oldest and, according to San, their pseudo-dad. Yunho and Mingi were the same age as San and they had all been friends since high school.

Yunho and Mingi were both very enthusiastic people. Even though Yunho was still not quite alright, he participated in the conversation with great energy; great considering the fact that he had to stay in the bed. Mingi was like a puppy. He kept pulling Jongho into side hugs or kept punching him in the shoulder and laughing really loudly. A bruise had formed on his shoulder the next day.

(Seonghwa had seen the bruise when he had come out after bathing the next morning and had screamed murder. When he learnt of how it came to be, he had immediately called Wooyoung and had complained till Jongho had snatched the phone and apologized. He didn’t think much about it but the next time he met San’s friends, a few days later, he noticed San hovering near him and Mingi being careful with him. He had been a little miffed – it was not like he was weak – but seeing San act all protective and seeing how he kept glaring at Mingi, well. He had decided to let it be, finding it hilarious how Mingi looked like a kicked puppy and kept trying to make up for it. He had to stop San after a while though: it was not as if Mingi had broken his bones. For some reason though, San didn’t relent for weeks)

Another time, around six months into the relationship, when he went over to San's place to pick him up for a date, Jongho had accidentally eavesdropped on a conversation that had him thinking. It was an argument between Hongjoong and San.

“But why?” He heard San ask.

“He needs to be prepared in case something happens, you know this.”

“Nothing’s going to happen.” San had said, sounding firm.

“You can’t know that San.” Hongjoong had replied, sounding tense and frustrated, “And no one has been around for this long, don’t you want to at least try?”

“Not really, no.” San had replied. He clearly wanted to end the argument there.

“Alright.” Hongjoong had conceded, “But just know that none of us would mind if you choose to let him know. He’s grown on us.” Jongho could hear the smile in his voice when he said the last sentence.

San had simply hummed and when Jongho heard footsteps coming towards the door, he had scampered to the stairs and pretended to reach the door when San opened it. He had given Jongho a small smile and had invited him in. Jongho waited with Hongjoong in the living room as San changed into another outfit and grabbed his wallet. Hongjoong had stared at him the whole time and Jongho had stared back. When San came out of the room, he had glanced between them, a nervous expression on his face, before grabbing Jongho’s hand and leading the way out. They had both shouted a ‘bye’ to the oldest and had left.

Jongho had thought about the conversation for many weeks but had not been able to gather the courage to outright ask San about it. He couldn’t be sure that it was about him and if it was, he didn’t want to risk opening a can of worms he may not be ready to deal with. He had mentioned the conversation to Yeosang, his best friend, and he had agreed with him.

“If he has a secret, he should be the one telling you about it.” Yeosang had told him. “he probably has a good reason for not talking about it. Don’t overthink, it won’t do you any good.”

And he was right. So Jongho tried to forget the conversation, though it was almost always there in the back of his mind, buzzing like a particularly annoying mosquito. He thought of bringing it up with Seonghwa but didn’t – he was afraid that his roommate might call Wooyoung at once and demand answers. He couldn’t risk it. He would rather wait till San mentioned something.

It was when he found San struggling with a lot of bandages and way too much blood that he started to seriously question things.

He had decided to surprise his boyfriend with jjajangmyeon during exam week, knowing that the older boy had been stressed. The door to his dorm had been open, which was weird, but Jongho had assumed that he might have forgotten to lock it because of all the stress. It was concerning and he would definitely mention it but he didn’t think much of it.

But then he had walked to the kitchen and found him trying to patch up what looked like a large gash on his shoulders with a first aid kit.

Jongho had dropped the paper bag he had in hand and had let out a short scream that had San snapping up to look at him, his expression that of panic and fear.

“What happened?” He had demanded, rushing to the boy and snatching the bandage from his hand. San had not replied but Jongho had been focused on cleaning the wound as best as he could so he hadn’t repeated the question. He had made him go to the ER and had scolded him throughout the journey, to and from the hospital, not quite sure why he was panicking but knowing that if he stopped talking, he would probably start crying.

San had pulled him into a hug as soon as they had entered his dorm and Jongho had hugged back, being careful about the wound but needing the physical assurance that he was alright and there. They had cuddled on the sofa for a while and Jongho had dozed off listening to San singing some pop song. He had not explained how he had been hurt and Jongho had not pestered him about it. He had a feeling that it had something to do with the can of worms and decided to settle for taking care of his boyfriend and waiting.

Things came to a head when San started cancelling multiple dates last minute. Jongho had initially tried to be understanding, not wanting to get into an argument. He had also had to deal with certain issues with his parents (read: convincing them that, no, San had not ‘seduced and corrupted him’ and yes, they were actually, really dating) and he was secretly glad that they had not had to meet since he was sure that San would find out about it. He didn’t want him to have to deal with his parents when they were like that, hoping that he would be able to convince them and make them understand. San’s parents had been sweet and Jongho felt bad that the other boy might have to deal with his hostile parents.

But after the first five times, he started wondering why it was that the boy kept cancelling. The last time they had been on a date was for their first anniversary and three months had passed. It was almost as if his boyfriend was trying to avoid him, but Jongho tried not to dwell on that. Seonghwa and Yeosang had noticed that his mood had gradually been going down and had tried to cheer him up by taking him out to the mall, to shops and even a concert. It did help him cheer up and he thanked them (for which he had received two slaps and a wet kiss from Seonghwa. Ugh, why did he bother?) for it, but he couldn’t be completely happy when he had to take ridiculous excuses like:

“Babe, I need to work on this last-minute assignment, let’s meet later?”

“I need to go home; mum needs me to help her with something.”

“Dad wants me to go to our old house with him, can we reschedule this?”

“I need to catch up on sleep, it’s been so long since I slept. Can we go out next weekend?”

And so on. The worst part was, Jongho knew that the boy had lied sometimes.

(San’s mum had called Jongho on the day he had cancelled with the ‘mum needs help’ excuse and had asked where they had planned to go and if they could drop by so that she could give them the cake she had made)

In the past few days, he had contemplated confronting the boy and was waiting to complete some of his bigger assignments. He didn’t want that stress to affect how he was going to approach the issue. Right then, he was walking through the city, taking a few moments to breathe some fresh air. He had set himself a deadline but had decided to cheat just that day. He was pretty sure that he would have gone mad if he had stayed in.

Just as he was passing the mall that he usually hung out at, he heard a loud blast. He spun around and moved a few steps back as he caught sight of a huge fire in the parking lot. His fight or flight instinct told him to scamper but he caught sight of a kid standing in the middle of a small circle of fire, sobbing. He hesitated for a second before he ran towards the lot, somehow managed to jump over the fire (that, weirdly, looked like it had been set in a particular manner) and grabbed the boy before turning around, ready to jump back out.

Only to meet with a wall of fire.

“What the fuck?” He screamed, before glancing at the boy again, hoping he wasn’t listening. The boy was still crying, cuddled in his arms. He stumbled back slightly but spun around again after a few steps when he felt something hot near the back of his shoes.

He was surrounded by another wall of fire.

“Sheep.” He muttered, terrified but not letting it show, knowing that the kid would freak out a lot more if he freaked out.

“Fire, fire of all things,” He mumbled, “hey kid, it’s alright, we’ll get you back to your mum, yeah?” He tried to sound as calm and soothing as he best could. The kid didn’t respond but as he kept talking, he felt him relax ever so slightly.

And that was when the next explosion happened. The fire snuffed out and Jongho watched as a part of the mall caught fire. He ran from the parking lot and let the kid down when he saw a lady rushing to them from a shop nearby and watched with relief as the child hugged her.

He turned to look at the mall and caught sight of some flying figures. He squinted and made out the familiar forms of the New World heroes and let out a sigh of relief. But as he continued watching, he saw that the villain, whoever it was, seemed to have a lot of backup. Jongho found himself walking towards the fight that was happening on the ground in front of the mall unconsciously. People were rushing out, clearing away from the place, but he kept walking towards it as he caught sight of something familiar on one of the heroes.

“Watch out!” He screamed when he saw one of the bad guys sneaking up on Illusion, the leader of the group of heroes. He saw the hero (him? her? them?) spin around and jump out of the way, narrowly missing being hit by a fireball.

“Choi Jongho what the fuck are you doing here?” He heard someone scream. He looked at the familiar figure of Deluge, the hero who was in charge of water and winds, and saw him staring right back at him. He looked a little lower and caught sight of the very familiar chain on the hero’s neck before looking back up at his face, shocked. The hero, who had followed his gaze, was now looking at him with a look that seemed to be half-grim, half-sad.

Jongho turned around and ran away.

He didn’t check the news, knowing that it would only make him worry and anguish more than he already did. As soon as he got to his dorm, he started on the project with a single-mindedness that spooked him. He tried his best to not think about what he had seen but his mind went back to the first-anniversary date.

“Will you give me my gift now?” Asked San, when they returned to his place after their date at a fancy restaurant. San had given him a bracelet, a beautiful bracelet that he had made. Jongho had fallen in love with him just a little more.

“Alright, alright.” He said. He paused in the middle of the living room dramatically before he pulled out the box that he had kept in the pocket of his hoodie. He presented it to San with a flourish and waited eagerly to see his reaction.

The older boy opened the wrapper carefully and smiled at the card that he had left him. When he opened the box and caught sight of the chain, he gasped out loud. Jongho understood why.

Firstly, the chain was beautiful, in a minimalist way. It had a small, round pendant with a jade stone. Not that San could have known it was jade if Jongho hadn’t talked about the chain before. Which leads to reason number two, the chain was something his grandmother had given him when he had been young and San knew exactly what it meant.

Jongho had always fallen in love easily. It was something his friends regularly berated him for, worried that he would end up with a broken heart. But it wasn’t something he could control. He knew that he opened up to people too easily, knew that he should build up more walls, but he simply couldn’t do it.

San looked up at him with an incomprehensible expression on his face. Before Jongho could (nervously) ask anything, he was pulled into a hug. Neither of them said anything but San always wore the chain.

And that said enough.

He didn’t realise that he had been crying until he felt someone wipe his tears. He blinked and glanced up to see Seonghwa hovering over him, a concerned expression on his face.

“What happened?” He asked, pulling the other chair and sitting close to him.

Jongho shook his head before he moved in to hug him, his mind and heart a mess. Seonghwa didn’t ask any more questions. He hugged him back and held him as he began crying once again.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and Comments are appreciated!


End file.
